College of Saint Rose celebrates fifth anniversary of Massry Center for the Arts

College of Saint Rose celebrates fifth anniversary of Massry Center

Published 7:58 pm, Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Music education student Lindsey Wiehl, 19, of North Bay, NY, practices her bassoon in a practice room in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Music education student Lindsey Wiehl, 19, of North Bay, NY, practices her bassoon in a practice room in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Music education major Meghan Gillen, 21, of Middletown practices the marimba in a rehearsal Hall in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Music education major Meghan Gillen, 21, of Middletown practices the marimba in a rehearsal Hall in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Music education student Michael Barber, 19, of Ticonderoga during a trumpet lesson in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Music education student Michael Barber, 19, of Ticonderoga during a trumpet lesson in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Students in a keyboard harmony lab in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Students in a keyboard harmony lab in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Sal Prizio, left, Premier Performance Program manager, Young Kim, asst. professor of the piano program and Steinway artist, and David Bebe, at right, orchestra director, in the Kathleen McManus Picotte recital Hall in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union archive) less

Sal Prizio, left, Premier Performance Program manager, Young Kim, asst. professor of the piano program and Steinway artist, and David Bebe, at right, orchestra director, in the Kathleen McManus Picotte recital ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Music industry major Dean DiMarzo, 21, of Poughkeepsie records his senior project in the Kathleen McManus Picotte recital Hall in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Music industry major Dean DiMarzo, 21, of Poughkeepsie records his senior project in the Kathleen McManus Picotte recital Hall in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Art student Christina Batson, 22, of Hyde Park hangs her artwork at the Esther Massry Gallery in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Art student Christina Batson, 22, of Hyde Park hangs her artwork at the Esther Massry Gallery in the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Exterior of the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Exterior of the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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Exterior of the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Exterior of the Massry Center for the Arts at the College of St. Rose in Albany March 21, 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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College of Saint Rose celebrates fifth anniversary of Massry Center for the Arts

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Albany

One day last week, Dean DiMarzo sat alone at a 9-foot Steinway on the stage of an otherwise empty Picotte Recital Hall at The College of Saint Rose's Massry Center for the Arts in Albany. Microphones bristled beneath the yawning lid of the grand piano, and DiMarzo, wearing professional-grade headphones, listened as he played the piano part for a section of the 30 minutes of original music that is at the heart of his senior project.

For his capstone effort as a music-industry major, DiMarzo is recording, mixing and otherwise wholly producing a recording for which he also wrote the music and is playing most of the instruments as well as singing. He could record the bass, drum, guitar, vocal and other tracks elsewhere, but he had only a small block of time on stage of the acoustically pristine Picotte Recital Hall, at its finely maintained Steinway, to record this piano part.

The previous night, the Picotte stage had been packed with both the college's Masterworks Chorale and its student orchestra for a joint concert for an audience that filled many of the 400 seats. Over the weekend, five students who are majoring in music or music education performed their required senior recitals on the stage, and down the hall in the Massry Center, in the 2,200-square-foot Esther Massry Gallery, an exhibit was being hung for the annual showing of work by senior art majors. Opening April 6, this year the senior show features the work of 46 Saint Rose undergrads. (The work of grad students opens May 5 in the gallery.)

Price: Tickets for Harris are $30; recitals and gallery shows are free and open to the public

Info: For a complete schedule of performances and exhibits, visit http://www.strose.edu/massry

The Massry Center is the artistic heart of a campus known for its arts and music education. The 46,000-square-foot building, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary on April 14 with a sold-out concert by blues legend B.B. King, was a gift from the eponymous local family, who are involved in real estate and many arts-related and other philanthropic ventures.

The Massry family has long been involved with Saint Rose — Norman Massry is the longest-serving member of its board of trustees — but they hadn't considered funding an arts center until Mark Sullivan, the immediate past president, approached them with the idea.

"It was a little different than we were thinking, and a little more expensive, but right away we could see that it was going to be a knockout," says Norman Massry. In the five years since, "It's been a game-changer for Saint Rose," he says. "It's become the center of the campus. It literally is in the middle of the campus, but it's become a focal point, the heart of everything that's going on."

Located on upper Madison Avenue next to an administration building that contains the college president's office, the building is deceptively large — four times as deep as it is wide, built on a former grassy area that previously had been the site of a rundown house warrened into small apartments. A green building with geothermal heating and cooling from 40 wells that plunge 450 feet beneath the basement, the Massry Center also features lighting that automatically adjusts based on the amount of ambient light coming in through its expansive windows. The American and Patagonian cherry acoustic panels on the walls of both the recital hall and the upstairs practice rooms for orchestra and chorus are harvested from sustainable sources, and 98 percent of the waste from its construction was recycled.

Besides the recital hall and gallery on the main floor, the building includes a basement of soundproof practice rooms and percussion studios, upstairs rehearsal halls, instructional rooms and studios, many with Steinway pianos. (The college is midway through a five-year process of becoming an all-Steinway campus, buying two per year and receiving others as loaners.)

"The building really says how important the arts are to the college and its students," says David Bebe, a professor of music, cello instructor and conductor of the student orchestra.

"It's a signature statement of (the college) ... as a first-class factory for teaching music education," says David Szczerbacki, who became Saint Rose's president in 2012 after eight years as its provost and vice president for academic affairs. He says, "In a parallel way, we also wanted to reaffirm our commitment in a big way to the arts in the region."

In 2007, before the Massry Center opened, Saint Rose had about 140 music majors; as of last fall the number was 245 (315 with grad students and music minors), and the building has been a strong recruiting lure.

"I could tell they were very connected to the arts here when I visited," says DiMarzo, who is from Poughkeepsie. He estimates that he spent almost all of his academic time in the Massry Center during his first two years, less now that he has an off-campus apartment and recording studio.

There are also 216 undergraduate and grad students in visual arts at Saint Rose.

"I want to work in a gallery (as a career), so it's really helpful to be able to get experience in a professional gallery like" the Massry's, says Christine Batson, a 22-year-old senior art major from Hyde Park. As part of her work for a gallery-management class, she was helping to install the senior show. The gallery hosts about five exhibits annually, giving students the chance to learn directly with working artists.

The music corollary of the professional art shows is the Premiere Performance Series, which each year stages from 13 to 20 concerts, split between contemporary music (folk/pop/rock), jazz and classical. It has brought in jazz master Chick Corea for a solo performance; trumpeter and former "Tonight Show" bandleader Doc Severinsen, who did an impromptu master class with two students who happened by while he was practicing; folk musician Livingston Taylor, who played with the Saint Rose orchestra; and James Brown's sax sideman Maceo Parker, among others.

"My role is to engage new people with the college — members of the general public, parents of students, people who have never been here before," says Sal Prinzio, who programs the series. He estimates that the series averages almost 90 percent capacity, or 350 people per concert in the 400-seat hall.

"I use that as a selling point: Where else can you hear performers like these in such an intimate space?" he says. "The sound is amazing, and there's literally not a bad seat in the house."